


middle school braces and other things from hell

by aucatgirl



Series: Prompt Collection: Voltron [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Biology, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood, Character Study, Flashbacks, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Humor, Keith & Shiro (Voltron) Friendship, Mother-Son Relationship, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Krolia (Voltron), Past Relationship(s), Protective Shiro (Voltron), eventually, hopefully?, or it will be
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:07:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,340
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25738552
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aucatgirl/pseuds/aucatgirl
Summary: Biology of half galra is always a gamble, Krolia knew this before her son was even an abstract concept in her mind. That didn’t stop her from immediately aging a few centuries when her newly-introduced son’s teeth began to fall out. Again.
Relationships: Keith & Krolia (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron)
Series: Prompt Collection: Voltron [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1867120
Comments: 5
Kudos: 88





	1. missing tooth

**Author's Note:**

> Set in an AU where quantum abyss didn’t happen somehow so they have to build their relationship without any super-convenient shared memory flashbacks. Keith is still 18. Krolia will be presented more morally grey than she was on the show but im not changing anything drastic from her story, just fleshing things out

**3:28 AM**

A gentle knock on her door snapped the Blade out of her light sleep. Shooting up into a sitting position, she grabbed her gun out of her pillow and went to move towards the door. 

“Krolia?” 

The voice that drifted through the metal door made her heart clench, as it usually did. She could never tell what the feeling was, a faint maternal love or a crushing guilt that always gets worse at night. 

This has never happened. They were both making attempts to recreate a relationship that never existed, in their own ways, but it hadn’t progressed to the point that Krolia would ever be approached first in a more casual situation like this. 

Krolia shook her head at her own thoughts. _Casual?_ It was the middle of the night. Something was wrong, way to get her own hopes up. Krolia wouldn’t be approached first if something wasn’t wrong. Her gut wrenched as her somewhat frazzled mind finally caught up to the situation. 

Krolia’s hand twitched before turning and placing the gun back on the bed, moving to open the door to see- 

Oh. 

“Hi. Um. I don’t... I don’t know what happened, here. This isn’t supposed to... in humans. Is this, um, normal...? For Galra. I mean.” 

_Oh._

Krolia’s heart was ramming in her chest at the amount of blood pouring out of her son’s mouth, the offender laying in a surprisingly still hand. Keith didn’t seem phased by this as she thought he would be, but then again, her own son became more and more of a stranger the longer she was by his side. 

Eighteen. He’s eighteen. Eighteen and so, so small. Adult galran teeth weren’t supposed to grow in until at least twice his age. Would he survive the physical trauma? Not just his age- humans are omnivores. The human jaw wasn’t equipped for the violent set of teeth inherent to galrans, especially not a human child, _her_ human child. 

Krolia snapped out of her stunned horror, suddenly grabbing her son’s face to pull back his gums. Even if she couldn’t see beyond surface level, she had to check... 

“‘ey! H- wha’are you-“ 

Keith didn’t struggle much against her while she inspected the empty space the tooth left behind, surprising her again. 

(Krolia wonders why she bothers being surprised by him anymore- the son she had crafted in her imagination to give her comfort in the monotony of space, simply didn’t exist. She shouldn’t force the real, living, existing son in front of her into her image, not when he was so much greater than anything she could’ve conjured. It wasn’t fair.) 

Sure enough, a sharper tooth was visible in the aggravated surrounding gum. Krolia kept her face as neutral as she could. She had no idea how large the new set of teeth growing in are- they could be unnaturally small, they could be missing roots, they could be so large that they were already harming him from the inside, but they’re already growing in and _he’s only eighteen-_

“Uhhh...” His voice snapped Krolia out of her racing thoughts. She absentmindedly noticed the amount of excess drool dripping down his chin and wondered how long she’d been staring. “Wha’ ish i’?” 

Krolia let go of her son’s face and took a step back, both of them wiping off spit and blood respectively. Not that she cared, of course. Last time she knew him she had been changing his diapers. 

“Keith. Listen to me. You need to go to the medical wing, now.” _Why am I implying he should go by himself? I need to go with him. I’m his mother._

“Huh? What’s wrong?” The tired, glazed confusion finally turned into concern. “Is it infected or something?” 

“No. You’re growing another set of teeth.” 

“Oh.” He blinked, the worry melting back into the previous, almost childlike confusion that stood in stark contrast to the blood dripping down his jaw. “I mean, I kinda guessed that. I saw the new tooth, so... Isn’t it normal for galra? To have two sets?” 

“Yes.” How was she supposed to phrase this? Should she be blunt, or try to soften the words a bit? Not that she was ever any good at that, neither was Kolivan- Galra are not known for their sympathy. Perhaps a human doctor would explain with more human niceties, provided she explain the situation properly- 

_No, he came to_ you _for guidance. Don’t back out of this, you’re his mother._

“See, adult galran teeth aren’t supposed to grow in until around forty deca-phoebs. That’s because the area around the jaw needs a lot of time to expand in size since galran teeth can retract, to an extent.” She took a calming breath. Keith seemed to be hanging onto every word, interest shining in his human eyes. The sight filled her with... something. “With how young you are, your new set growing in could be very dangerous. Life-threatening, even, the risk is very high with both your age and smaller stature.” 

Mother and son blinked at each other for a few moments as the words sunk in. She resisted the urge to face palm at herself. _Good job, Krolia! Go ahead and scare your kid to death before his teeth have a chance to!_

“...Oh. Um. That’s not good.” Keith huffed in amusement but his expression was anything but. Not that Krolia would be able to decipher the expression he was actually wearing- human expression is too nuanced to learn in-depth in the short time she was first on Earth. “Well, I’ll go get Coran? Then? Sorry for waking you up. And thanks.” 

Keith made a short wave before rushing back down the hallway. Krolia took a step to follow him before stopping. She couldn’t tell whether he had run like that out of fear for himself or his discomfort around his estranged mother, his stilted behavior around Krolia wasn’t lost on her. 

(What did she expect? A tearful reunion when they were nothing more than strangers?) 

Should she follow him? Does he want her around? He only came to ask whether his sudden health crisis was normal, nothing else. 

_You promised you’d never leave him. Stop running away._

Krolia closed the door behind her and walked down the empty halls.


	2. fairytale gone wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi I’m back and yes I’m actually gonna finish this!! This chapter is just setting up this fanfic’s Krolia characterization properly before we finally head into the fun stuff

Krolia was beginning to get annoyed by the sound of her own typing. Her legs were sore, her posture was terrible, and her feet felt close to falling off. Other than what her true purpose was, there was no advantages to finally having her own base. All she did was stand and look hazily at various screens; most of her days felt to be on autopilot. 

Ranveig needs to invest in more chairs. Yet another reminder why she hates the Empire. 

After the fall of Zarkon, the Empire fell into a frenzy. All her subordinates would talk about was the battle that had taken place, and their theories as to what had happened to Zarkon. Some of them were truly inane, such as one suggestion that Zarkon had actually won and Voltron had hijacked their news system to try to make them lose hope. 

Even without the stream of information she was given from the Blade of Marmora, Krolia knew that’s far from the truth. She was sent the total damage and death toll from the headquarters. It was chilling, mostly because everyone knew that the tide of the war had shifted. Something no one ever thought they’d live to see. 

No galran solider in their right mind thinks that Zarkon is as well as the witch claims, especially not one that survived the battle. Voltron had decimated all of the fighters and cruisers in his path. Any ship near the teludav had been destroyed and the only chance of survival was to flee, a tactic that usually brought on execution, but the lack of a stable internal power structure has left those soldiers alive for even a few more months. 

Zarkon may be alive, but nothing will ever be the same, and it would take much more than one maybe-alive dictator to get their original power back. Krolia had subtly celebrated by decreasing her workload for a day under the guise that she was mourning the emperor, an excuse that worked like a charm. 

She somewhat envied her half Galran Blade siblings. They weren’t able to do spy work, so they were able to run around with Voltron while the full Galran- or at least appeared to be- Blades were stuck in monotonous spy work. 

It wouldn’t be so bad if she wasn’t working for Ranveig of all Galra, who she’s sure Voltron didn’t even know the existence of. He tended to think of himself as more important and influential than he actually was- or maybe that was just her incredibly biased hatred seeping through. She really did hate this boring and almost useless job, _and you abandoned your child for this? Did you really hate the idea of raising him that much?_

Krolia blinked and shook her head at the sudden thought that sliced through her brain. She couldn’t think about that- not now, not ever. 

______

Another day went by, and another, and another. The only blip in her schedule was her mandatory report to headquarters, slightly delayed as one of her subordinates just _had_ to ask about what they were supposed to do with the broken materials that were shipped after the battle at Naxzela. How was she supposed to know? And why ask _now_ , when she was doing her totally-not-suspicious sending of intel to an unmarked location? 

_Beep. Beep. Beep._

Her annoyed thoughts were broken by the all-too-familiar sound of a call. Suppressing a sigh, she turned on the video to face her fake superior. 

“Commander Krolia.” 

Krolia’s stomach sank at the familiar voice, raspy and ugly, like he had inhaled sand.

Yet she saluted, fist tight over her chest plate. The movement was swift and practiced, always hovering the same spot, where a frayed yet preserved picture of her son was tucked away. “Greetings, Lord Ranveig. How may I serve you?” 

Ranveig chuckled. “As you know, the Kral Zera is taking place very soon.” _Of course I knew. Nobody is shutting up about it._ “And I will be attending.” _Of course you are, you bloated disgusting sack of yupper manure._ “Once I become emperor,” _you won’t._ “I have decided that I will place you on my highest council for your unbroken loyalty.” 

Krolia feigned a surprised and awed expression. “Lord Ranveig, I am deeply honored. I assure you that I will continue to give you my most utmost respect and loyalty after your victory.” 

“I should hope so.” 

“I could think of no other Galra I would give my unbroken loyalty to.” Krolia always fervently pretended she was speaking to Kolivan when she spoke to Ranveig like this. She saluted again as she watched him reach for the button. “Vrepit Sa.” 

The video closed. 

_Emperor Ranveig..._ Krolia scoffed. _As if._

It’s most likely that Prince Lotor will take the mantle. A chilling thought, that the blood son of Zarkon will take the empty throne. The intel the Blade received on Lotor over the years shone him in a mediocre light at best. 

But... Lotor is half Galra. Perhaps he will bring new, better ideals to the Empire, one that had been lost to the long destroyed peaceful era on Daibazaal. 

At those thoughts, a pang of grief took over her. 

A half Galra leading the empire... 

Krolia discreetly reached into her chest plate to pull out the primitive piece of paper- a printed photograph, her partner had called it. She brushed her claws over the image of her smiling baby, held tightly to the chest of her partner. 

_If only you were here to see this._

Krolia loathed to admit that discovering she was pregnant was a complete surprise. She likes to tell herself that Keith wasn’t- she hates this term- a total accident. She likes to tell herself that she hadn’t thought the chances of a Galra procreating with an incredibly isolated species was slim to none. It keeps out the thoughts of _maybe if you’d been more careful, you’d have never needed to abandon any child_ and _you didn’t bring Keith to be raised in headquarters because you didn’t want to deal with the hassle_. 

And of course, the worst thought of all, in a voice that sounds so much like her mother’s, _your one chance to have a child and you wasted it on a half-breed of a backwater lowlife species._ The rare instances that particular thought flashes through always rattles her. 

Not one soldier in the Blade of Marmora knew about the baby. Kolivan was suspicious, but that was all, and she was content to keep it that way. He was the last Galra she wanted to tell, with their already complicated relationship. 

______ 

_Kolivan is only suspicious, why would he know about the baby?_

The words she had used to comfort herself for so many years now repeated on a loop, mocking her, as she ran into the hangar with her son in tow. 

_That piece of ruggle. He did this on purpose._

She heard him take off his mask, but she couldn’t look. Not yet. Not when they were quite literally running for their lives. 

But once they safely got into space, with the confident and incredible maneuvering of her son’s piloting (he’s really here, he’s real!), she knew she couldn’t avoid it forever. 

As light footsteps grew near behind her, Krolia turned, her practiced neutral expression set like stone on her face as she faced the one person she had never wanted to confront... not like this. But the watering of her eyes she couldn’t hide- the last time she cried was seventeen years ago, and had no reason to practice hiding any tears. She regretted that. 

With a stony face and eyes filled with tears, she looks at back at the human reflection of herself. 

_He’s so small._


End file.
